Press

Congratulations to Johanna on Food & Wine Nomination!

Congratulations to Chef Johanna Ware who has been nominated for The People's Best New Chef by Food & Wine Magazine! Smallwares would like to thank Food & Wine for the honor of being nominated as well as the loyal customers and fans of the restaurant. You can check out the list of the other awesome chefs that are nominated here.

Press contact: Jannie@littlegreenpickle.com

Check out Lucky Peach's seashore issue to see Johanna Ware and portland chefs Johnny Leach and Josh McFadden take a Goonies themed trip to Astoria! Johanna even got to ride in the original Jeep from the movie. Recreate some of her recipes from the article!

NY Times: In Portland, Ore., Dining Gets Fine Without Losing Flair

In the quiet residential neighborhood of Beaumont, Johanna Ware, who once cooked at Momofuku Ssam Bar in New York, has created her own world-beat style, described on her Web site, in David Chang-ian language, as “inauthentic Asian cuisine.” We arrived late, and it was quiet. The space would be a blast with a crowd; the restaurant fairly pops with red and white lacquer set against stony concrete. The bar is a looming presence in the room and on the menu, which offers cocktail-friendly small plates full of contrasting textures, canny ingredients and good fun. Read more about smallwares here..

This season, gather with your loved ones for some serious feasting at Smallwares and its slinky, red-lit boîte, Barwares, where chef Johanna Ware prepares a trio of gorgeous ssam-style dinners that feed up to eight people for less than $150. The mash-up-loving chef offers both a cumin-perfumed Chinese/Middle Eastern riff on lamb and Korean-gone-Southern barbecued pork spareribs. Her stylish take on a traditional Korean-meets-Northwest family meal centers on a massive whole roast salmon (above). Fragrant with ginger and cilantro, the fish is carved table-side and served with a rainbow of sweet-tart, spicy, and funky dipping sauces, pickles, and kimchis, from apple to cabbage. Tuck all those savory goodies in crisp scallion pancakes, ruffle-edged lettuce, or nori. Every bite is a flavor-zinging present. Ssam-style dinners require 72-hour notice. Call for reservations.

Punch: The Best Restaurant Bars in Portland: Barwares

Adjacent to the self-proclaimed “inauthentic Asian” restaurant Smallwares, Barwares’ focus is, unsurprisingly, on booze. Rather than residing on separate lists, sake, wine and beer are mixed together under categories like “rich,” “fruity” and “earthy,” while the abbreviated cocktail menu is composed of spirit-driven cocktails titled, simply, “The Whiskey,” “The Gin” and “The Rum.” Carrying on the theme of improvisational Asian, and taking cues from the kitchen, the bar stocks ingredients usually reserved for culinary use like kaffir lime and garam masala. A fireplace and an overstuffed orange couch are congruous with the quirk, but in a most comfortable, unimposing way.

Tasting Table: City Guides: Portland

A bit of an insider's secret, Smallware's name should be shouted across the country. Johanna Ware's inspired, country-roving Asian food is like little else out there. The fried kale with candied bacon and fish-sauce vinaigrette gives the virtuous leaf a mischievous side, and the egg custard with mapo tofu is a mash-up of epic scope.» Read more

Eater PDX: Johanna is Voted Chef of the Year in 2012

To recap, Eater's local editors in 19 cities nominated candidates for five major local categories: Restaurant of the Year, So Hot Right Now Restaurant, Chef of the Year, Bartender of the Year, and Stone Cold Stunner.» Read More

Life on the food frontier can be rugged and lonely. Ask Johanna Ware. As a child in Chicago, Ware remembers the quizzical reaction to the “crazy lunches” packed by a mother “who cooked her way through Julia Child before that was a freakin’ movie.”

As the owner-chef of Smallwares, our runner-up Restaurant of the Year, she’s in a similar position. Like Aviary, Ware’s ethnicity-agnostic Northeast Fremont Street restaurant reinterprets familiar themes from Asian cuisine in creative new ways. Scandalizing traditionalists isn’t the problem, though—it’s the way the restaurant confuses neighbors in Beaumont Village.